Biography
Anthropologist by education and passionate about interdisciplinary research, with 25 years of research work experience in public health. Worked at senior positions on international research studies funded by NIH, CDC, European Union, and BMGF. Extensive experience and skills in qualitative and mixed methods research. Interest areas are Digital Phenotyping of Mental Health with a multimodal approach, stigma, mental health and well-being, socio-cultural coping, social media, innovative approaches for Information Education and Communication (IEC), and digital health.
Key Impacts
General and religious coping among people with TB: A systematic enquiry using Brief COPE and Brief RCOPE scales
As coping contributes to better health outcomes, TB programs should develop strategies to strengthen coping among PWTB with an additional focus on reducing avoidant coping use and PWTB with depression and/or anxiety symptoms.
Source: Conference 2024
Smartphone and social media use among people living with tuberculosis: A key for less resource intensive IEC
Though majority PWTB were using WhatsApp and YouTube, based on screentime YouTube was the most used social media platform. Standalone mHealth applications are important for IEC but a scoping review by Giebel GD et al (2023) comprehensively assessed their challenges and barriers. Hence, IEC additionally needs to be integrated in social media platforms used by PWTB.
Source: Conference 2024